


always here

by patriciaselina



Series: let's go to a new frontier [1]
Category: Free!, 月刊少女野崎くん | Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Swimming, Childhood Friends, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Free! - Freeform, Friends to Lovers, HoriKashi Week, Oneshot, Tumblr: horikashiweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 05:46:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4048471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patriciaselina/pseuds/patriciaselina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he finally says the words, it’s two weeks after the fact and they’re sharing a room (<em>“Just like old times, Hori-chan! Remember when we were little, and mum put you in that frilly dress so you can sneak in the girl’s quarters – ow ow OW!!”</em>) It’s a day before Nationals, and as amazing as that sounds – it’s nothing compared to the fact that Kashima’s still here with him, after all these damned years, no matter what happens, still by his side, holding his hand along the way.</p><p>(A Free! AU oneshot, for HoriKashi week day 1: "Summer".)</p>
            </blockquote>





	always here

**Author's Note:**

> [horikashi week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/horikashi-week) | 001 |  _summer_
> 
> Free! x Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun AU! Like in the [graphic I did for GSNK week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/post/105732148509/gsnk-week-day-7-fandom-crossover-alternate), Masayuki and Yuu are Haruka and Makoto, respectively. We’re in season 1 territory, which is why Masayuki’s voice is intended to be a little more quiet, a little less... _passionate_ (?) than the one I normally use for him. Anyway, hope you like it!

Masayuki remembers when this all started.

When things ballooned way, _way_ out of hand, more than just mornings spent staying too long in the bathtub and waiting for Kashima to drop by and pull him back to reality. He remembers Mikoshiba – their young, darling _Mikorin_ – with his arms spread wide and a galaxy sparkling in his eyes as he’d pulled Masayuki to the side and swore that if only he’d join them, swim this relay with him and Kashima and Sakura, they’d see _a sight we haven’t seen before_ , _and wouldn’t that be fun, Hori-senpai?_

Now Mikoshiba’s too far gone for sparkling eyes and charming smiles and whispered promises, looking down at Masayuki from his spot one step above at the winner’s podium and saying _I’ll never swim with you again. Never. Not ever. Never again, Hori Masayuki, never_.

Masayuki _tries_ to forget it, tries to shrug it off as easily as the water off his arms whenever he does his front crawl, but – no. Not when it’s still Mikoshiba’s haunting laughter following him all the way home.

All the way home, where he sees, waiting for him –

It’s been roughly five hours since Masayuki finally left the locker rooms, taking a detour to break into their school’s swim club pool and mull over what the hell just happened, earlier.

Around six hours since Sakura dragged him out to the stands and made him watch the rest of them in action – her signature breaststroke, Nozaki’s persistent butterfly, Kashima’s – Kashima’s _impeccably_ flawless backstroke.

Around _six and a half hours_ , then, since Mikoshiba stared him down and said he’d never swim with Masayuki again.

But still, this is the sight that greets him: Kashima, all lord-knows-how-many-inches of her, curled up in his foyer, as easily as Masayuki himself could fit into a sandbox.

(Which is to say – possible, but with great difficulty.)

Her dark hair falls around her face, her eyelids closed and hiding those clear green eyes of hers from his view, long dark eyelashes brushing against the very tops of her cheeks. She’s snoring slightly, not _incessantly_ like he sometimes tells her she does, just to mess with her – it’s something he wouldn’t mind listening to for the better part of forever, if he were the kind of guy who’d think about those things.

It’s utterly unfair how Kashima still manages to be _breathlessly perfect_ even after staying in this position for god knows how long, the only kinks in her flawlessness the forward slouch to her broad shoulders and her chapped lips that purse with every shallow breath.

Masayuki wipes away a sudden and insistent urge to run his tongue over Kashima’s dried-up lips (where the _hell_ did that even come from) and realizes that _of course_ Kashima won’t have the time to take care of herself, to comb out the miniscule tangles off her perfect-looking hair, to apply balm on her lips, to wash the chlorine free of her skin, not when she was so busy _worrying_ about him. Masayuki, her childhood friend, who, above all things, loved swimming. _Masayuki_ , who ran off without a word after losing both his competition and his friend.

He’d been spending so much time trying relentlessly to drag Mikoshiba out of his funk that he hadn’t realized Kashima doing her best to drag Masayuki out of his own.

There’s a soft set to Masayuki’s eyes when he gingerly places his hand on Kashima’s shoulder, nudges her softly. “Oi, Kashima, wake up.”

“–mmnh? Hori-chan?” Kashima’s eyes open slowly, clear green looking somewhere past his shoulder, as if she was still half-asleep and not quite sure he was really there.

“ _Surely_ you can’t be thinking of sleeping like that the entire night,” Masayuki deadpans.

“Nah, ‘m fine, house’s just a few steps away anyway,” Kashima says, standing up and stretching her arms, the casual roll of her lean arm muscles making Masayuki’s mouth go dry. “Was just waiting for you to come back home.”

“Sakura and the others?” Masayuki says, over the frantic beating of his heart when Kashima says ‘ _home_ ’ like that, as if his little place was home to _her_ , too

“Sent them back home. I said you’ll definitely be fine and there was no need to worry so much about you.” Kashima says, turning back and heading inside, flipping open switches and sleepily, successfully maneuvering through his kitchen as if it were her own. Within minutes she’s got tea boiling over the stove and the mackerel curry her mom told her to bring heating in the microwave. “You didn’t even get dinner, didn’t you? C’mere, sit down.”

He does, but not without rolling his eyes at her. “I wasn’t informed that you were becoming my mom, Kashima?”

“I’m _not_. If I were your mom I would be screaming at you by now for running off like that and making us all worry.” Kashima quips, yelping a bit as her fingers hit warm Tupperware plastic. “And I were _my_ mom, I’d be crying at you for running off like that and making us all worry...”

“Well, what would _you_ do then? Kashima.”

“I’d do _this_.” Kashima says, setting down a plate of curry rice and a cup of tea before looking at Masayuki dead in the eye, bright green against molten gold – “ _Masayuki_ , stop running off like that and making us worry about you like that.”

Despite them being friends for as long as Masayuki had ever cared to remember, he still feels that damned hitch in his breath every time Kashima would so much as _say_ his first name. He wonders, in some dull-lit distant corner of his mind, if his doing so would make her feel the same way.

Or, well, maybe he’s just plain _weird_. No surprises there.

“You nearly gave Nozaki a heart attack, y’know that? Chiyo-chan too.”

“I’ll apologize to them in the morning,” Masayuki says, working through his late supper, unmindful of how Kashima’s eyes widen at his easy admission. “What, we’ll meet in the morning anyway, right? ‘Cuz we’re swimming the relay.”

“Wha – Masa – you, we, you mean you _don’t mind!?_ ”

“Of course I won’t mind. Why would I?”

Mikorin or no Mikorin – more than anyone else, when it all came down to it, Masayuki only ever swum for Kashima’s sake, didn’t he?

After all, when they were younger, he’d gone to swim club in the first place, just because she’d wanted to swim and thought it’d be more fun if she wasn’t going alone. If he swims this relay – it won’t even be for Mikoshiba’s lost memory, or his own. It’d be for Kashima, for Yuu herself, and the brilliant smile she’d hone in on him when she pulls him out of the water.

Masayuki knows he hasn’t exactly been fair to her lately. He’d spent so much time mulling over just what the hell happened to Mikoshiba when he studied overseas, so much time engrossed in their newfound rivalry, that he hasn’t even taken the time to sit back and look at Kashima. Was she sleeping well, eating well, studying right? He knows she’s perfectly, almost _annoyingly_ flawless no matter what, but – well, surely she’d be living a better life if only she weren’t too busy worrying about him?

The thought comes, as unbidden as it is sudden – _I want to thank her_.

_Yuu, thank you. I’m grateful that you’re here by my side._

“Why are you looking at me like that, Hori-chan?” Kashima says, through a mouthful of her half of the curry. “Is there something on my face?”

“Nothing,” Masayuki murmurs, as he looks away, off to the side, biting the admission further back down his tongue.

He’ll save the words for when they win.

Not if. _When_.

* * *

 

When he finally says the words, it’s two weeks after the fact and they’re sharing a room ( _“Just like old times, Hori-chan! Remember when we were little, and mum put you in that frilly dress so you can sneak in the girl’s quarters – ow ow OW!!”_ ) It’s a day before Nationals, and as amazing as that sounds – it’s nothing compared to the fact that Kashima’s still here with him, after all these damned years, no matter what happens, still by his side, holding his hand along the way.

“Kashima,”

“Mmh?”

“No – _Yuu_.”

 _That_ startles her into looking back at him. He knows she’d turned all the way over on her own bed so she could look directly at his, but he doesn’t rise to the bait – doesn’t turn over as well to meet those eyes of hers. He can’t. Not now. He knows this.

“ _Huh_!?”

“Thank you. For everything.”

“ _Masayuki_ , I don’t –”

“I’m glad,” His throat’s gone dry now, oh wow, how the hell can Kashima keep up with saying all these sappy stuff all the time, when it’s actually this damned hard!? “No, I’m _grateful_ that you’re here. With me. By my side.”

“Masayuki, I...”

“I – I’m going out, now,” Masayuki says, suddenly, throwing the covers off his body, feeling his treacherous body go red, all the way up to his ears. Damn, this really was harder than he’d thought it’d be.

“Wha – but Masa-chan, it’s dark out!”

“I’m going out for a run.” _Hopefully, when I get back, this damned flush would finally do me a favor and stop existing._

“I’m – I’m coming with you!”

“Do whatever you like,” Masayuki says, his voice monotone, despite the way his heart clenches when Yuu walks up to him, chuckles, and unlocks their door, taking the hotel keycard with her.

“You know what, Masa-chan,” Yuu says, sing-song as the room lights peter out behind them, voice pitched low and _excruciatingly_ attractive, “You’re not the only one who feels that way.”

“ _Really_.” he deadpans, even as Yuu snakes an arm around his shoulder and presses her cheek to his hair.

“Really,” Yuu replies, her lips going dangerously close to clipping the shell of Masayuki’s ear. “I’m glad to have _you_ by my side, too.”

This is going to be a long night.

**end**

p


End file.
